MMPBL/560 Dimensions of Diversity Worksheet Assignment
Week 1

The first week’s assignment focuses on developing a plan to gain knowledge about key course concepts and recognize application of those concepts in the real world. Begin by reviewing the objectives for the first week of the course as well as the Week One mind map. Then read the assigned text materials to develop knowledge about the concepts.

|This assignment requires you to do three things. First summarize at least five key concepts. Remember that the mind map is a source|
|of these concepts. Second, provide an application of each concept to a business or organization. Ideally, this application will |
|come from your personal or professional experience, but additional reading of research on the concepts in the library will give you|
|other examples on which you may draw. Third, provide a reference from the assigned readings for each concept identified. See the |
|example below. |

An essential business skill is the ability to communicate concise information while providing a well-researched response. In this assignment, demonstrate that skill by completing the worksheet on the following page. The example below is from the MBA/500 course. Use this example to help understand the assignment’s requirements. The worksheet should not contain simple one-word or even one-sentence answers; it should adequately demonstrate, in short paragraphs, graduate-level thinking about the economic concepts presented in the reading materials.

Example Table for Assignment
|Concept |Application of Concept in your personal and/or professional life |Reference to Concept in Reading|
|Example from MBA/500: |In the past, I worked for a landscaping company whose competitive |“Organizational commitment |
|Building Organizational Commitment, |advantage was hard-working employees. The employees’ commitment |refers to the employee's |
|which is developed through the |came from knowing that they had good job security and could trust |emotional attachment to, |
|activities of: |the owner of the business. |identification with, and |
|Justice & support | |involvement in a particular |
|Job security |In my current job, I work for an employer whom I can trust |organization” (McShane, 2005, |
|Organizational comprehension |completely. When she says she will do something, she can always be |p. 126). |
|Trusting employees |counted on to do it. In addition, she trusts me to do my job and | |
|Organizational commitment is critical to|knows that she can count on me. As a result of the relationship, I | |
|any organization’s success since it will|feel more committed to my job than I otherwise might feel. | |
|enhance retention of valued, trained | | |
|personnel. | | |

Diversity Concept Worksheet
Ivie I. Imoisili
University of Phoenix
Due on 07 March 2011

|Concept |Application of Concept in your personal and/or professional life |Reference to Concept in Reading |
|Assimilation |I moved to the United States of America in 1998 at the age of 17 from Nigeria|“Assimilation refers to merging of |
| |(West Africa). When I moved here to begin my senior year, people were |groups and their traditions within a |
|Assimilation assumes that|surprised that I spoke English (even though it was heavily accented). I was |society that endorses a single common|
|parties agree to forgo |asked questions like whether I lived in a tree and how it felt to wear |culture”. (Kottak & Kozaitis, 2003). |
|their ethnic culture for |clothes. The assumption by most people (classmates and teachers) was that | |
|the dominant culture. The|people in Africa walk around naked hunting lions and swinging from tree to | |
|problem with assimilation|tree to get around. I could not believe that this was the perception that | |
|is that when a person |people had of my country considering that I came from living in a mansion | |
|agrees to take up the |with maids and chauffeurs, attending private school and shopping in Europe. | |
|culture and norms of the | | |
|dominant culture, the |I decided that the ignorant commentary would continue as long as people could| |
|person agrees to forgo |detect where I was from. I decided that my best bet was to lose my accent and| |
|the traits of their |everything that indicated my original heritage. I listened to the way my | |
|culture. Individuals |classmates talked, carried themselves, and dressed. I practiced at home. | |
|assimilate, not groups of|Within three months, I lost my accent and talked like someone who lived in | |
|people. “Absorption into |America all my life. People began to forget that I used to be a foreign | |
|a mass culture means |exchange student and the ignorant comments stopped. As I went on to college, | |
|erasing prior cultural |I lost touch with my heritage completely. As an adult, I am trying to relearn| |
|traits and identities; |everything that I once knew because when I go around other Nigerians, they | |
|changing names, dress, |treat me like an American and refused to believe that I lived there for most | |
|speech, values, and |of my life. | |
|behavior. Such | | |
|adjustments foster | | |
|passing or fitting in”. | | |
|(Kottak & Kozaitis, | | |
|2003). | | |
|Culture |As a young woman, I was taught how to become a good Nigerian wife. I was |“Culture … is that complex whole |
| |taught how to dress in our traditional gear, how to cook Nigerian food, how |which includes knowledge, belief, |
|Culture refers to the |to respect my husband, and run a household. I was taught the language, |arts, morals, law, custom, and any |
|cultures and traditions |customs, and traditions. I learned everything from my mother and grandmother.|other capabilities and habits |
|of a group of people. It |My parents named me “Omonseivie” which means children are more important that|acquired by man as a member of |
|is their way of life. |coral beads. My parents explained to me that in the old days, people used to |society” (Tylor 1871/1958, p. 1)” |
| |sell their children into servitude to acquire more traditional beads (called |(Kottak & Kozaitis, 2003). |
|Culture is learned, often|coral beads) because they were seen as a sign of wealth and affluence. | |
|through enculturation |Everything from my name and upbringing was meant to be a reminder of my | |
|where it is learned |cultural heritage. | |
|through childhood by | | |
|being passed down from |My mother is teaching my second education. She is gradually reminding me of | |
|older members. |the little things that I learned as a little girl. She explained to me the | |
| |process of a traditional wedding and what all the rituals means because the | |
|Culture is symbolic. |expectation is that I would marry a Nigerian man. She has also begun to share| |
|Through the use of |her recipes with me again. | |
|symbols, culture is | | |
|preserved and these | | |
|symbols are shared and | | |
|passed down through the | | |
|generations. | | |
| | | |
|Culture is all | | |
|encompassing and | | |
|integrated. It is | | |
|instrumental, adaptive, | | |
|and maladaptive. | | |
|Ethnocentrism and |I worked for a tobacco company. For health care professionals and those who |Ethnocentrism is the tendency to use |
|Cultural Relativism |detest the habit, they viewed what I did as morally reprehensible. While I |one's own cultural standards and |
| |worked for the company, there were people who saw what I did as tantamount to|values to judge the behavior and |
|“Ethnocentrism is a |legal drug dealing. They held an ethnocentric view that tobacco companies and|beliefs of people with different |
|cultural universal. That |those who work for them are wrong because the nature of the product kills. |cultures. |
|is, people everywhere |Anti-smoking commercials are on television, everyone is aware of the | |
|think that familiar |intrinsic risk of using the product and so smokers are almost seen as having |Cultural Relativism, is the view that|
|explanations, opinions, |a death wish. |behavior in one culture should not be|
|and customs are true, | |judged by the standards of another. |
|right, proper, and moral.|I agree and don’t deny that the nature of the product is harmful however, I | |
|They regard different |believe that at this point, everyone knows about the health risks associated |(Kottak & Kozaitis, 2003). |
|behavior as strange or |with the product and so customers make a choice to use or not to use the | |
|savage”. |product. I believe that I was providing a quality tobacco product for those | |
| |that chose to use it. Even though I made a choice not to use the product | |
|Cultural relativism can |because of its harmful effects, I did not judge smokers based on my views or | |
|present issues because |values. | |
|everything is relative | | |
|(there is no high | | |
|ground). Morality is | | |
|relative to the culture. | | |
|So it is accepted that | | |
|what might be right in my| | |
|culture is not going to | | |
|be right in another | | |
|culture. | | |
| | | |
|(Kottak & Kozaitis, | | |
|2003). | | |
|Ethnography |When I was deployed to Afghanistan, the camp that I was stationed at had a |“Ethnography is a research process in|
| |lot of members of the U.S Special Forces. Special Forces soldiers have always|which the anthropologist closely |
|Ethnography entails |been regarded as the Army’s version of a unicorn (We all know what they are |observes, records, and engages in the|
|actually living with a |but no one can recall ever seeing one in person). Because the operations in |daily life of another culture—an |
|group of people for a |Afghanistan were expanding and I was stationed at a NATO camp, I was exposed |experience labeled as the fieldwork |
|year or longer to learn |to things and people I would not normally have access to as a soldier. |method—and then writes accounts of |
|the customs and cultures | |this culture, emphasizing descriptive|
|first hand. It is done to|After talking to some special forces soldiers, I really learned about what |detail” (Marcus and Fischer 1986, p. |
|become cultural |they do. The first thing to note about these soldiers is that they do not |18). |
|anthropologists because |look like any one else in the military. These men go out into the local | |
|this is their method of |villages and they infiltrate the tribes. They live among the locals, they |(Kottak & Kozaitis, 2003). |
|collecting research. |look like them, dress like them and talk like them. To everyone else, they | |
| |are regular Afghanis. This is a source of the intelligence that is collected.| |
|What is useful about this|This is part of how we learn more about their culture. | |
|is that it gives one an | | |
|authentic feel for the | | |
|culture being studied as | | |
|opposed to relying on | | |
|second hand information. | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|Discrimination |The nature of my job with Altria Sales and Distribution did not allow me to |Discrimination refers to policies and|
| |choose which customers I interacted with. Territories where not distributed |practices that harm a group and its |
|Can be against a certain |based on a Sales Manager’s race, sex, or sexual orientation. There have been |members. Discrimination may be de |
|group of people based on |many instances of representatives going to areas where they were the minority|facto (practiced, but not legally |
|their race, sex, sexual |(for instance, black sales managers being assigned to very rural areas or |sanctioned) or de jure (part of the |
|orientation or physical |white sales managers being assigned to very urban areas). Representatives in |law). |
|handicap. It can be |this position have complained of instances of discrimination because clients | |
|individual where people |do not want to talk to “that black guy” or that “white girl” (they have | |
|discriminate against a |actually called the company to make this complaint). At the time of my |(Kottak & Kozaitis, 2003). |
|group of people because |departure, the company was working to better align representatives to | |
|they believe that group |territories. | |
|to be inferior. It can | | |
|also be institutional, | | |
|where programs it is | | |
|built into the structure | | |
|to discriminate against a| | |
|certain group of people. | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |

Reference
(2003). On Being Different: Diversity and Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream (2nd ed.). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.